Pages

Sunday, August 31, 2014

The Reports of Cold Calling's Death are Greatly Exaggerated

What is the future for cold calling? It seems to me that most
of you think it is a dying art. Most modular home sales reps started their
careers with a list of prospective builders to reach, and bashing the phones
was the origin of most early sales cycles. It was virtually unheard of for a
customer to contact you back if you left a message or proactively contact you.
That is where the sales cycle is really changing. Social media advertising has
become the message left by the cold caller of old. Customers are more likely to
now proactively return messages and make that call – albeit behind the comfort
wall of email or digital engagement as opposed to over the phone.

Interestingly the advent of many social networks, within
which we choose to selectively follow in return for a stream of messages seem
to be providing a more targeted means for companies to continue to exert
outbound messaging than cold calling. I guess the question is how do these
modern means of communication compare to cold calling when it comes to
conversion and ROI?

So how many sales reps are still wasting large amounts of
time and resources trying to cold call customers? What is the real ROI of
most businesses lead generation activity? Is this something that enough
businesses are measuring. Granted just one sale from one of those expressions
in some of those industries could have produced enough profit to justify the
investment – every industry is different – but it just doesn’t seem a solid
long term strategy.

If you are a factory sales rep, you have to ask just how
effective is your social media in capturing the attention of a new builder looking
into modular home construction. Aren’t all Facebook, Pinterest and other social
media campaigns run by a factory aimed almost solely at the end user, the new
home buyer?

And what happens if someone “Likes” your factory’s FB page.
Do the reps go after that “Like” or does the factory have someone that begins an
email program with them? Are the factory’s builders alerted that someone living in their area has “Liked”
the factory FB page? Of course not, nothing is done. There is no follow up done
by the factory folks, the sales reps or the builders. If one of the primary
goals for the factory sales rep is to find and recruit new home builders, then
all the social media in the world won’t help because there is no “next step”
when someone “Likes” your social media page.

On the flip side, there is still a place for a sales person
learning from the ground up. Why? Because I’ve seen several waves of new
modular home sales reps in recent years enter modular construction industry,
assuming that sitting and emailing contacts or pinging them on Facebook and
LinkedIn will deliver sufficient inbound opportunity. This might work for some
– but the real art in cold calling over the phone is being able to communicate
with a prospect in a manner that will lead you further down the sales cycle AND
build a mutually beneficial relationship. It also means you learn more about
how to present yourself the next time you have to sit in front of a potential new
builder – something that isn’t taught at an MBA university.

The bottom line is that cold calling by phone is not dead or
dying. It’s very much alive but instead of just picking up the phone and
dialing the builder’s number, you first have to look and see if they have had
any activity on your company’s social media sites. You also have to look at
their websites and social media presence and finally do some in-depth research
before picking up the phone.

The art of cold calling is alive but it looks a lot
different than just 5 short years ago.